Recently, a mass arrest outside of the White House left more than 140 protestors arrested. The protestors included, but were not limited to, various leaders within the immigrant culture and world, a Maryland delegate, and hundreds of others, some with legal residency, some not.

This protest only goes to show how big the subject of an immigration reform has become, and how there are strong opinions of both sides of the dilemma. Add children to the mix, and you get one of the most heated debates in politics today. It creates situations like this one, where people are killing illegal immigrants simply because of that.

What should we do about it?

A problem?

Some may call all illegal immigration a problem. Others may go the other way and call all illegal immigration beneficial to both sides. I happen to not like extremes.

The Problematic Side of Illegal Immigration

If there is one thing that we can all agree on, it’s that illegal immigration is simply that, illegal. However, I would posit that just because something is illegal it doesn’t mean it is morally wrong. For example, women’s suffrage was illegal for a long time, it doesn’t mean that was right.

However, there are real problems to illegal immigration. The underlying one being that a country should serve and protect its citizens and illegal immigrants are not part of that group.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” — 14th Amendment of The United States’ Constitution

That one is the obvious one. There are various other problems that are argued to be caused by illegal immigration, such as lost jobs, crime increase, wages not being in favor of “Americans” (and by Americans people refer to legal citizens), and the abuse of the welfare system (follow the hyperlinks for more in depth support for these arguments, determine for yourself whether or not they’re credible).

The Beneficial Side to Illegal Immigration

The major benefit to immigration in general is the economic ones. More workers in the economy generally equal economic growth and therefore societal well being.

That one is also the obvious one. Others have argued that immigrants (including ones who are here illegally) benefit our culture (again, determine for yourself whether or not you believe this study).

Then just to further outweigh the negatives, there is comprehensive evidence and studies that show that illegal immigration doesn’t actually hurt our jobs, our wages, and that crime is just a problem that happens by illegal citizens and legal ones.

To quote a New York Times article posted on February 2013:

There are many ways to debate immigration, but when it comes to economics, there isn’t much of a debate at all. Nearly all economists, of all political persuasions, agree that immigrants — those here legally or not — benefit the overall economy. “That is not controversial,” Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told me. Shierholz also said that “there is a consensus that, on average, the incomes of families in this country are increased by a small, but clearly positive amount, because of immigration.”

Two Options

The U.S. really has only two options to take regarding this issue. There’s either deportation or legalization (a.k.a. “amnesty). You might be thinking there’s also the third option of just ignoring it and letting things stay as they are, but as you learn in life, ignoring a problem doesn’t solve it.

Deportation

We can take the one extreme that the average white American would love to have Congress take, and that’s to kick ‘em all out.

This is not good (understatement of the century). For one, it’d be incredibly expensive to taxpayers to track down and deport every single one of the 11 million illegal immigrants that currently reside in the United States.

Secondly, take a look at that number. 11 million. Those are 11 million people currently active and moving within the U.S. economy. They are an important part of the economy, whether you like it or not. Deporting them all would seriously hurt economic growth in the United States.

Legalization

The second radical option is what every far left democrat would like to do to help their approval ratings: legalize all of ‘em.

This is also problematic. For one, there is truth to the fact that a significant handful of illegal immigrants do cause crime increases and tend to create gangs (these are the ones currently found in prison). Secondly, the U.S. also needs to look out for its own interests, and having a lot of people now being able to legally use welfare programs would not help propel those interests forward.

Like I said before, I happen to not like extremes.

A Simple Solution

There is a simple solution that I believe would benefit legal citizens and illegal immigrants who want to be upstanding legal citizens. The following is my three easy steps to immigration reform:

1. Quickly deport all illegal immigrants residing in prison or the ones who will reside in prison for transgressions of law (outside of citizenry laws), in a rapid repatriation program. Some may cry out that those who are in prison for these transgressions need to serve justice, but frankly, it is a burden on our justice system to be giving food, meals, and shelter to people who not only are criminals, but are also not the responsibility of the U.S. as illegal immigrants. Deporting them quickly would relieve a large burden on our prison system. Any and all illegal immigrants who commit any crime that can’t simply paid off by a fine should also be deported as quickly as is possible.
2. Give citizenship or legal residency to “upstanding” illegal residents. In other words, give the option to these immigrants to stay legally if they have a clean criminal record. These immigrants, albeit illegally, have proven themselves to be able to reside in the United States while being benefits to society as a whole.
3. Have all of these soon to be legal residents pay a a fine equal to the sum of all the taxes they did not pay. Most illegal immigrants do not pay taxes, giving them papers and then making them pay those taxes which they missed would greatly benefit the U.S. economy in general. Those who refuse to pay the fine would not get legal citizenry status, and would be deported quickly.

This reform would be my suggestion to capitol hill for what they should do about illegal immigration.